September 18, 2013

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University Libraries will host a symposium on "Data Information Literacy" on Monday (Sept. 23) and Tuesday (Sept. 24). The event's focus will be on the knowledge and skill sets on data management and curation that graduate students will need to acquire to be successful in their career, and on how librarians can help in teaching them.

This symposium is a component of a research project led by the Purdue Libraries and supported through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Librarians from Purdue University, Cornell University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Oregon have investigated this topic through developing and implementing data information literacy instruction programs for graduate students in a range of science and engineering disciplines.

"We are seeing an increased interest from funding agencies, publishers and others in making data available for discovery and re-use outside of the labs in which they were generated," says Jake Carlson, associate professor with the Purdue Libraries. "We believe that librarians, with our long history of managing, disseminating and preserving information, can play a role in helping students understand and address these new requirements."

The audience for the data information literacy symposium is academic librarians and others who are providing research data management instruction for students, or librarians who are interested in doing so. The symposium will help librarians acquire an understanding of current issues in teaching data management and curation competencies to students. Through presentations, discussions and hands-on activities, attendees will develop strategies for creating their own instructional programs suitable for the needs of their students and faculty.

A reception will be held on Sunday (Sept. 22) from 6-8 p.m. at the South Ballroom in the Purdue Memorial Union. The symposium registration will begin at 8 a.m. on Monday and will conclude at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Due to the high interest in the symposium topics, registration was full within in a matter of days; however the symposium will be simulcast via a live web stream at: http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/i82md